The Berliner Grundtheater e.V. (BGT) was founded in Berlin in 1991 and is dedicated to producing a wide range of English-language plays, while integrating players of different nationalities. In addition to playing many seasons in Berlin, the company has also performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Anglo-German Festivals in Germany, and is now based permanently in Luxembourg.
The BGT repertoire includes shows by authors as varied as Peter Shaffer, Anthony Minghella, Oscar Wilde and William Shakespeare. The company also produces original scripts, such as adaptations of JANE EYRE (2010), LITTLE WOMEN (2014) and A CHRISTMAS CAROL 016) and in January 2020 it premiered June Lowery's CHARLES DICKENS, THE BEST OF MEN; THE WORST OF MEN. The company is especially committed to promoting theatre for female actors and writers who are under-represented in the theatre and performance world. Shows like WOLVES ARE COMING FOR YOU (2019), PICNIC AT HANGING ROCK (2018) DAVID'S REDHAIRED DEATH (2020) and THE ROAD TO HUNTSVILLE (2021), WE HAPPY FEW (2021) and most recently DI AND VIV AND ROSE (2022) all featured mostly - if not only - women actors as part of the company's policy to put women centre stage.
Combined with its policy of promoting plays by and about women, in recent years the company has also focused on promoting young performers and traineee or aspiring actors who are hoping to work in theatre. It is a co-sponsor of FEST (The FESTIVAL OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE SCHOOL THEATRE) which takes place every second year in Luxembourg (https://www.fest.lu/) and in 2019 started a summer programme giving trainee actors a contract to work on a show.
with
Kim Birel, Bjørn Clasen, Maya Fish, Eloïse Heger-Hedløy, Kalina Koeva
June Lowery, Ana Maia, & Lindsay Wegleitner
Directed by Tony Kingston
Theater Salle, LMRL (Lycée Michel Rodange) 30, Bd. Pierre Dupong, L1430 Luxembourg,
Thursday 27th & Friday 28th and Saturday 29th April at 19.30
Tickets on sale from January 2023
EMILY DICKINSON is one of the most influential poets of the modern age - but in her lifetime (1830 - 1886) her name was unknown and her poetry largely unpublished. Only after her death, when her sister found and published bundles of her poems, did she become known and eventually recognised in the 20th century as a unique, innovative and powerful poet. As the essayist and liberal reformer Thomas Wentworth Higginson - to whom she had sent some of her poems in 1862 - wrote after her death: "The impression of a wholly new and original poetic genius was as distinct on my mind at the first readings ... as it is now ". He judged her poetry "remarkable" but "too delicate" to publish. So she remained an unacknowledged single woman in Amherst, Massachusetts.
Inspired by both Emily's poems (she wrote nearly 1,700!) and her life,18-year-old Eloïse Heger-Hedløy has written a play exploring the question of what makes a poet? Where does poetry come from? Does the poet chase it, or does it just emerge firmed in the mind. Moving between scenes of her mundane home life and the imaginary, almost metaphorical figures who keep her company in her imaginings, the play looks at the struggle for a woman to be heard at all, let alone as a poet, in the strict social atmosphere of 19th century New England. And lurking behind it all lies the tempting, but somehow terrifying promise of fame. What is the value of a poem if it is unread? What is the point of being a poet if you're not known? Who is the poet writng for? Through scenes filled with both comedy and dark threat the play looks at Emily's (and possibly every poet's) struggle with these questions.
The BGT Theatre Compaany is delighted to have the opportunity to present this new and experimental piece of work by a young and promising writer and actress. Helping to develop the text through a series of workshops during the summer of 2022, this is the latest BGT play to put WOMEN CENTRE STAGE and to encourage young, new talent,
LUXEMBOURG TIMES
Nine schools and 95 students to perform at FEST 2022 (luxtimes.lu)
CHRONICLE.LU
RADIO ARA - Interview with Students acting at FEST 2022 (Podcast)
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Read the "culture.lu" article on "The Road to Huntsville" and the role of women in theatre
